Leffler’s Day at Indy
In Two Words; Tight, Tires

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Jason Leffler, driving the No. 70 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet, finished 32nd in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Sunday.

Following a solid qualifying effort that put him 21st on the starting grid at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Leffler battled a tight handling condition throughout a race in which tire issues stole the day’s headlines.

The 15th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race here was hampered by six competition cautions for teams to change tires that lasted less than 20 laps before wearing out. In all, 11 times the caution flag waived, encompassing 52 laps of the 160-lap event.

“Obviously this wasn’t the ideal race for anyone involved or for the fans,” Leffler said. “But we all faced the same issue with the tires so, as always, it came down to doing the best with what you have. We just needed to get the Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevy to turn better. It was pretty tight all day,” Leffler said. “With all of the cautions we had plenty of time to adjust on it, but we never found the balance we needed.

“The pit crew was really on their game today and turned some great stops for us,” Leffler said. “And we stayed clean and finished on the lead lap. There were definitely some positives for this team to build on today.”

Haas CNC Racing has employed the services of several drivers to pilot the No. 70 Impala SS this season, and next week as the team will head to Pocono with Tony Raines as the scheduled driver for the Pennsylvania 500.